proto-persona

SKILL.md

Structured template for creating hypothesis-driven user personas from available research and stakeholder knowledge.

Synthesizes existing user research, market data, and team insights into a working customer profile without requiring months of validation

Includes step-by-step guidance for defining persona identity, voice, context, and decision-making influences with quality checks at each stage

Designed to align teams early, guide initial design decisions, and explicitly surface assumptions that require validation through research

Distinguishes proto-personas from validated personas and includes anti-patterns to avoid (treating assumptions as fact, fabricating quotes, creating too many personas)

Purpose

Create an initial, assumption-based persona profile that synthesizes available user research, market data, and stakeholder knowledge into a working hypothesis about your target user. Use this to align teams early in product development, guide initial design decisions, and identify gaps in understanding that require validation through research.

This is not a validated persona—it's a "proto" (prototype) persona that evolves as you learn more. Think of it as a structured placeholder that prevents design-by-committee while acknowledging you don't have all the answers yet.

Key Concepts

What is a Proto-Persona?

A proto-persona is a lightweight, hypothesis-driven persona created from:

Existing research: User interviews, surveys, analytics (if available)

Market data: Industry reports, competitor analysis, demographic trends

Stakeholder knowledge: Sales, support, and team insights

Informed assumptions: Best guesses that need validation